Yahoo Autos What's on the Line as Trans Am Series Hits COTA for Season Finale
Just about all that's left for Paul Menard and Rafa Matos this weekend at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas is to decide where to put their 2024 Trans Am Series championship trophies.
Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Menard in the No. 3 Menards/Masterforce Tools Ford Mustang in the TA Series and Matos in his No. 60 Concord American Flagpole/Nitro Motorsports Ford Mustang in the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series have nearly insurmountable points leads in their respective classes heading into Sunday's season-ending Trans Am SpeedTour event at COTA.
How insurmountable? Glad you asked.
• In TA, Menard holds a hefty 93-point advantage over Chris Dyson, who has won the TA Series the past three seasons. A perfect weekend on the points side—winning the race, winning the pole, leading a lap, and leading the most laps—is worth 110 points. With just nine TA cars entered and a ninth-place race finish worth 68 points, Menard just needs to take the green flag to start the race to clinch his first Trans Am championship.
Menard, who made 471 NASCAR Cup Series starts from 2003 through 2019, has been dominant all season in Trans Am with six wins and three runner-up finishes in 10 races.
Menard is seeking his first Trans Am win at COTA, while Dyson won there in 2022.
• It's pretty much the same story in TA2, where Matos in his No. 60 Concord American Flagpole/Nitro Motorsports Ford Mustang leads 2022 TA2 champion Thomas Merrill and his No. 26 HP Tuners/Cope Race Cars Ford Mustang by 106 points.
The entry list for the TA2 race includes a whopping 43 cars. A five-point race for Matos (he could finish 36th in a 43-car field) shuts out Merrill, even if Merrill has a perfect weekend of winning the race (103 points), winning the pole (5 points), leading a lap (1 point) and leading the most laps (1 point).
Matos and Merrill have both had success at COTA, with Matos winning in both 2020 and 2021 and Merrill taking the checkered flag in 2022.
Meanwhile, champions in the three GT classes—XGT, SGT and GT—have already been crowned for 2024.
• Danny Lowry in the No. 42 Bennett/BridgeHaul/PitBoxes.com Mercedes AMG GT3 won his second-consecutive XGT title.
• Kaylee Bryson in the No. 02 Logical Systems Inc./Sam Pierce Chevrolet Corvette won the SGT championship. She is just the second female SGT champion and third female champion in Trans Am history.
Chris Coffey won the GT championship. He has seven wins this season in his No. 97 Norwood Auto Italia/Traffic Grafix Maserati MC GT4.
Trans Am Series Western Championship
The Western Championship is sharing the stage with the Trans Am Series national tour this weekend at COTA.
Two of the three season titles in Western Championship have also been clinched.
• Steve Goldman, with four wins in his No. 13 LIG Racing Chevrolet Corvette, won the Western TA championship.
• David Hampton (No. 14 AR Motorsport Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport) has won five times and enters COTA weekend as 2024 champion in GT.
• The only class up for grabs is the Western XGT title. Michelle Nagai (No. 72 Nagai Racing/Berkeley Jet Drive Chevrolet Camaro) leads by 52 points. Nagai, however, is not entered this week and is expected to be passed by Chris Evans (No. 92 Central Welding Supply Ford Mustang) in the final season standings.
